1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the manufacture or processing of products or samples. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and process for manufacturing or processing a product or sample by dispensing.
2. Description of Related Art
Manufacturing processes often require the combination of different materials, such as solder onto a printed circuit board or an active agent onto a pharmaceutical substrate. Various methods have been developed for the combining of such materials. For example, soldering methods have been developed for connecting integrated circuit chips to the printed circuit board. One such method includes applying a small amount of solder to the bottom surface of the chip, aligning the solder with a bond pad on the surface of the printed circuit board, and heating the solder until it reflows. Another such method includes applying solder to bonding pads on the printed circuit board and then bonding electrical components to the printed circuit boards by positioning the components over the solder and by heating and reflowing the solder. In other methods, chips are bonded to a patterned layer of solder created by applying a thin layer of solder paste to a printed circuit board through holes in a stencil, leaving a selected solder pattern on the printed circuit board.
Such methods suffer from drawbacks as to efficiency and quality. Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus and process for manufacturing products via dispensing that reduces or eliminates these manufacturing and quality control drawbacks of the contemporary devices and techniques.